Valley

1972

1h 40m

Adventure

List

40%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

59%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Viviane (Bulle Ogier), the unhappy wife of a French politician, journeys to New Guinea to find exotic feathers that she can sell back in France. She then encounters Olivier (Michael Gothard), the leader of a band of backpacking hippies, who assures her that the rarest plumage can be found deep in the jungle. Viviane decides to join Olivier and his fellow travelers on a journey into the unknown, which results in a life-changing encounter with an isolated tribe of natives.

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Justine Smith

Vague Visages

La vallée is not an entirely successful film, largely because of its limp energy and problematic ideological frameworks. It is, however, intensely bizarre and a fascinating portrait of a particular time and place.

Nov 21, 2023

Full Review

Richard T. Jameson

Parallax View

Schroeder is more infatuated with than perceptive about the compulsion to search for paradise ...

Dec 17, 2011

Full Review

John A. Nesbit

Old School Reviews

the background scenery is strong enough to save former hippies and sixties people from embarrassment

Rated: C+

Jan 7, 2010

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 3/5

Jul 23, 2005

Full Review

Rumsey Taylor

Not Coming to a Theater Near You

It is a film with a lush visual element and ambience, and with little substance.

Aug 6, 2003

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Audience Member

While the story is quite weak the movie impresses for its settings and visuals and has a conspicuous documentaristic side. The native people are filmed with respect and without any attitude of superiority. The movie characters accompany us to meet an indigenous tribe by first leaving our western frame of mind.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Nice cinematography. No substance though for a film with potential. It's about finding paradise, but it has so many filler moments that the philosophical moments of which there are few, are completely lost.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"La Vallée" was Barbet Schroeder's 1972 follow-up film to "More" and is especially notable because of it's soundtrack music by Pink Floyd, a kind of trance-rock, later released as the album "Obscured by Clouds." It is the story of Vivian (Bulle Ogier), the young wife of a French diplomat, who while shopping alone for tribal artifacts in Papua/New Guinea meets up with Olivier (Michael Gothard) and a small band of (hippie) explorers who claim to be able to put her in contact with providers of the rare plumage of the Bird Of Paradise, which has been hunted to near extinction. Trafficking in the colorful feathers is illegal but a few are known to be still available in remote interior outposts. The hunt for the exotic and beautiful feathers is eventually subsumed into a greater search, when Vivian agrees to accompany the band of free-spirited wanderers into the mountainous interior of the island where the leader of the group, Gatean (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), hopes to find "the valley," a legendary, perhaps nonexistent, paradise from which he claims that, if it has ever been found, no one has ever returned. Through the days of journeying, there are encounters with remote inhabitants portrayed (in improvised footage) by members of a real New Guinea tribe. Vivian is introduced to experiences of free sex, natural drugs, nature worship, and vague utopian philosophy that seems to involve mainly the shedding of all vestiges of western mores and civilized conduct. The obviously real slaughter of pigs for a collective aboriginal feast is a disturbing scene - it tells us the director was stretching for verisimilitude and gives us an indication that this fable is hardly a fairy tale. As the group's exotic adventures continue, beautifully photographed by award-winning cinematographer Nestor Almendros, they climb ever higher into the mountains, first surrendering their land rover for horses, and then the horses for an arduous trek on foot. Eventually they are lost in mist on a clouded mountaintop, exhausted and without any remaining food and water. The film ends in a revelation which may be more mystical than real and as the pulsating Pink Floyd music plays us out, one is reminded of the old adage that the journey is sometimes greater than the destination. I cannot call "La Vallée" classic cinema, but the use of exotic locale, the cinema verité style, and the symbolism of the story make this film a curiosity at least, that now, half a century on, reminds us of a time when turning on and tuning out was considered an act of brave artistic exploration.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

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Audience Member

The woodstock nation tripping out in Papua New Guinea, seminal seventies cinema.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

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Audience Member

Strangely hypnotic film in which nothing much happens.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

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Audience Member

Not a great movie but ne which brings back memories of my youth and finding my sexuality. The Pink Floyd album Obscured By Clouds (the movie's soundtrack) makes the movie better than it really is.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

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Barbet Schroeder

Director

Bulle Ogier

Viviane

Jean-Pierre Kalfon

Gaetan

Michael Gothard

Olivier

Valerie Lagrange

Actor

Jérôme Beauvarlet

Actor

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Synopsis

Viviane (Bulle Ogier), the unhappy wife of a French politician, journeys to New Guinea to find exotic feathers that she can sell back in France. She then encounters Olivier (Michael Gothard), the leader of a band of backpacking hippies, who assures her that the rarest plumage can be found deep in the jungle. Viviane decides to join Olivier and his fellow travelers on a journey into the unknown, which results in a life-changing encounter with an isolated tribe of natives.

Director: Barbet Schroeder
Genre: Adventure
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Aug 10, 2005
Runtime: 1h 40m